


Celebrating Apollo 11 and the Mission to the Moon

by markwatneyandensemble



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 17:44:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16068128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markwatneyandensemble/pseuds/markwatneyandensemble
Summary: 68: One time they were short on gasSet early season 4





	Celebrating Apollo 11 and the Mission to the Moon

He’d been driving down this particular dirt road for the better part of two hours, hoping it would soon turn into pavement and he’d have some sense of where they were going. The fuel gage on the car was creeping closer and closer to “E”, and for about the fifteenth time since midnight, Mulder was kicking himself for letting her talk him into this.

_“We can make it in one trip, Mulder. No need to stop for the night.”_

Said optimist was currently asleep in the passenger seat, arms folded into her chest as she leaned against the window.

Every twist and turn looked the same as the last, and Mulder couldn’t distinguish hardly anything in the darkness. They were going to run out of gas soon. The boat they were driving got twenty to the gallon, but it didn’t take long for him to realize the guy at the Bureau auto pool was overestimating.

 _“We can make it in one night.”_  

Sure, he’d said.  _One night. Did that include hitchhiking and walking back to DC, too?_

His eyes were briefly taken off the road as the yellow light dinged on the dashboard.  _Well, that’s the gas._

He reached over and turned off the radio, scrounging for any hope for the battery holding out.  _Those four extra yards will really do us some good._

The road opened up a little, and he could make out a little sidebar to stop briefly, so he pulled onto it.

“Scully,” he whispered, reaching one hand over to gently shake her arm.

“Mmmph…”

“Scully, we’re out of gas, wake up.”

Her blue eyes opened halfway, giving him a sleepy glare. “What?”

“We’re out. This junker ran out of gas.”

She blinked hard, her eyebrows furrowing as she took in the situation. “Why didn’t you stop?”

“We’ve been on this road for a while, I think we got the map wrong.”

“No gas stations?”

“No gas stations.”

She sat up, and reached into the glovebox for the map.

“So, the last town we were in was Canton?” he nodded. “And the shortcut over to Springfield that guy gave you was this road?” she ran her finger along a little black line.

“Yeah.”

She started talking through a yawn. “Which is called ‘Branson Way’- have you seen any roadsigns?” He shook his head. “Well, I don’t think we got on Branson Way.”

He chuckled. “Really?”

Despite the darkness he saw her roll her eyes. “I think,” she squinted at the tiny print on the map. “We probably took Route 213 instead. Its a lot longer with nothing out there. Plus the turnoff was right by the one for the other road.”

“Great, so how far are we from… anything?”

She squinted again at the map. “Probably not far, but I can’t really see,” she reached up to turn on the light, but it wouldn’t go. “Shit.” They groaned in unison, as Mulder tried the engine. It made a sound like a dying cat with a hairball.

They sat in silence, taking in their situation. Mulder took out his cell on a whim, but even in the darkness he could see it said ‘no service.’

“Wanna start walking?” he asked, partially legitimately.

She tiredly shook her head, and leaned heavily against the door.

“Well, I think either we wait here until someone comes along, or we walk a little ways and see if we can make it to the next town.”

Scully inhales deeply and pulls her coat tighter. “I vote wait for someone.”

He reached down and cranked the window open slowly, letting the cool mountain air drift through the car. He felt himself leaning heavier and heavier on the door and forced himself awake.

“Scully?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m going to sit outside so I don’t fall asleep. I wanna see if anyone comes.”

“Okay,” she said, her voice fading.

He reached over and slid the map from where her hands pinned it to her lap. He climbed out of the car and onto the hood, hoping he wouldn’t dent the car. Despite the yellowy glow the moon had that night, he could barely make out more of the map than in the car, and after squinting for a few minutes, he gave up and slipped it into his pocket.

Minutes turned into an hour and besides the rustle of trees, he was surrounded in silence. He didn’t know if Scully had continued to drift off to sleep until he heard the car door open shut, interrupting the silence in the best way.

“Hi,” he said, quietly.

“Mind if I join you?” she asked, softly, pulling her jacket tighter around her.

“Never,” he blurted out. “Are you cold?”

He didn’t even wait for a response, already shucking his coat off his shoulders.

She climbed up next to him, opening her mouth to decline the coat, but then shut it and took it bashfully.

“Thanks.” She pulled his coat around her shoulders, and in the process slid impossibly closer to him on the hood.

It would be so easy for him to wrap his arm around her. He could tell, staring down at her, that they’d fit perfectly. But there was no excuse to do so. She didn’t seem cold anymore. It was a moment before he realized she was speaking.

“Thats the crater where Apollo 11 landed,” she said, untucking one arm from her chest to point at the moon.

Mulder bit back a smile.

“What?” she demanded.

“I didn’t know you knew that much about space.”

“Hmmmm,” she groaned.

“What was that… cringe?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, Scully. Your secret will be safe with me. Besides we might be stranded out here for weeks.”

She looked at him like he was crazy, and paused before speaking again. “I just have… a history.”

“With what?”

“Space.”

“Scully,” he whispered. “Are  _you_  an alien?”

“What? No.” She groaned again. “I just went through a phase in high school where I was really into it.”

Mulder looked at her with only partially-mock surprise. “I thought you’d rather have a pony and french braid your own hair than think about space.”

“When did I say that?”

“When we had that case in Houston.”

She sighed next to him, and it could have been his imagination but he thought she pressed even closer into his side.

“It’s just that I had an astronomy club when I was 15. I threw a special meeting for the 10th anniversary of the moon landing, and no one came and it was humiliating. Not even the few friends I did have at that school. Bill was out of school by that time so he doesn’t know. Charlie… Charlie and Missy were sworn to secrecy.”

“Scully, I’m so sorry. If it helps, I would have totally joined your club.”

“Would you have worn the t-shirts too?”

“There were t-shirts?”

She let out a loud chuckle, and her head briefly fell against his shoulder. “Yeah. There were t-shirts.”

“I have to have one, you know.”

“I think my mom still has a box of them. I screen printed them myself.”

“Wow, a Dana Scully original. I’ll ask her about it some time. They sound too valuable to just be boxed up.”

“I doubt she remembers that part of my high school. After my schoolwide announcement-“

“What now?”

“-went so bad, I was kinda made fun of for a while.”

Mulder’s heart broke, remembering how bad his own high school bullying was. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok, most of them have their own snotty kids by now.”

Scully must have sensed his upset and found his hand with hers, before continuing the story. “After that, I tried to harden my image. Invested a lot in black eyeliner. Ripped up every piece of clothing I could find.”

Mulder smiled into the darkness, picturing a spunky, much younger version of the badass woman sitting next to him.

“If I’d known how much you liked space I would have gotten you a keychain or t-shirt when we were in Houston.”

She groaned again, and he was sure it was accompanied by an eye roll. “Mulder, you are now one of five people, plus those in attendance of Jefferson High School morning announcements, that knows about that. You are officially sworn to secrecy.”

“Of course,” he agreed. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t bring it up when it’s just you and me.”

“I’m going to regret this.”

“No, c’mon Scully. Tell me more about the moon.”

He felt her slouch even closer to him and he took a chance and moved his arm to wrap over her shoulders. She didn’t look up at him, but he thought he could see her lips curving to a smile.

“Well,” she said, in a lower voice than before. That crater, the little one that’s kind of shaped like a breast-“  
  
“Scully!”  
  
“What? It’s what Melissa said it looked like.”

He laughed, and she elbowed his ribcage. “Don’t laugh. You didn’t have to share a room with her for sixteen years.”

“I’m sorry.” He wasn’t.

“Don’t be. You weren’t the one who defaced my moon poster with a sharpie.”

He chuckled softly, and couldn’t fight a grin if he tried. “So, what’s the boob called?”

“Well, that particular one is called Rheita.”

“Like Moreno?”

“Like Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita.  _He_  was an astronomer.”

“Ah.”

“There’s like four other breast shaped craters on the moon. I just can’t see them from here. But I know it’s four, thanks to Melissa.”

“What are the other ones called?” he asked, eager to keep the conversation going.

Beside him, she started giggling, the kind of growing giggle that usually led to punch-drunk hysterics.

“What?” He was grinning. “What did I do?”

“Nothing,” she laughed. “I just realized the last time I was on a hood of a car stargazing, the guy I was with was a lot less interested in space.”

“What was he interested in?”

In the dark, she looked up at him and waggled her eyebrows.”

“Scully!”

“Just shaddup and tell me what that is.” She pointed at a group of stars clustered together.

“Pop quiz? Uhh… I think it’s Gemini.”

“Mulder, it’s October.”

“Then I don’t know.”

“That’s okay, I don’t know either.”

They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the rustle of trees around them.

“Tell me more about your space club,” he said, quieter than before.

“Mmmm, I begged Missy to join,” she mumbled, her cheek pressing into his chest, sending a jolt of electricity through his entire body so intense it could jumpstart the car engine. “Told her it would look good on her college transcript, but at that point she was fighting with our parents about whether or not she was even going to go to college.”

“Bet Ahab took that well.”

Scully laughed softly. “He was pretty clear it was college or a convent for her.”

He copied her soft laugh, trying not to jostle her head from its place on his chest.

“Scully?” he whispered.

“Hmmmm?”

“Thanks for keeping me company.”

“Mmmm,” she answered, not lifting her head. He could feel her warm breath through his shirt and could tell she was on the brink of sleep, so he didn’t speak again. He was tired, but the sounds of the forest and the desire let Scully sleep kept him awake. Mulder simply lay there, Scully keeping him warm through the cool October night, and stared up at the stars, silently thanking whoever was up there for letting the gas run out.

By the time his watched ticked to the three, two headlights had appeared, and a man and his son off fishing gave them a ride into the nearest town.

 

They were back in D.C. by late morning, their rental returned with a full tank of gas, and Mulder nearly asleep on his feet. By the time he got home, he could have collapsed and slept for days, but there was a phone call he had to make first. A week later, the package arrived on his doorstep. A tiny, but meaningful birthday gift for Scully, ordered four months early, shipped all the way from Houston.


End file.
